Miracles...

It had to have been about a year ago now. The sting of divorce still penetrating the very core of our family. The hurts, the separation, the change of it all weighing like a five hundred pound weight on my back, a thousand on the kids. It would take an act nothing short of spectacular to shake it - to find a solid truth in a world crumbling around them...a miracle...believe it!

We came home one evening, the kids and I, to their Mom's car in the driveway. She wanted to tell them goodnight before she made the journey to her new home. Standing at the door I saw my daughters heart rip into pieces as her Mom left. The tear stains on her face already ever present were wiped away only by fresher pains inducing more cascading tears. I was not strong enough to hold back mine. We both sat on the foyer floor crying, the boys perplexed as to why any of this was. I was broken - that they had never seen.

Something else they had never seen, the boys noted in the midst of this that the dog did not greet them at the door nor come when they called his name. We all banded together to search for him with my mind wondering if I'd let him out in the morning and forgotten to let him back in. Panic stricken, we searched the house, every room and every closet, then the neighborhood, twice. We spent that night, all of us mourning seemingly yet another loss.

The next morning I called every shelter and pound, had his implanted identity chip activated, (I know - don't ask) and then we waited. That evening proved to reveal itself with erie similarity to the last. No Tiger, more tears. I clearly needed a miracle that night, they needed one to solidify that something in this world couldn't be shaken. We prayed that night in an unusual place, all of us, at the foot of my daughters bed. In their world, the most poignant pain being their last. They prayed for the return of Tiger.

After we ended our prayer, I vowed to find him as I exited to put the boys to bed. As we reached the door, Tiger in no doubt materialized from under her bed shivering and shaken. It was exactly what we needed!

You see, although I could search for explanations like, maybe I missed that spot in haste, or he was sick and solitarily hiding to lick his wounds. Truth was...I had not and he was fine except for going through the whole "materialization" process! The fact of the matter is that some things need not be explained but accepted for what they are. He was lost and now found. They had come together in His name, prayed, and it was answered! For that night, their solid truth was now a spiritual one tangible to the feel of fluffy fur and a wagging tail.

Truth be told, that as a parent, it's only a few lessons we can teach our children and many they'll have to experience on their own. It is those times that we must rely on miracles - believe it!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T